Photo: CTCC

Zhang Zhen Dong wins dramatic first race at Wuhan

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Zhang Zhen Dong has won the first race of the weekend at Wuhan for the SAIC VW333 Racing team, finishing ahead of the two Fords of Rainey He and Martin Cao, with Colin Turkington fighting with Cao for a photo-finish run at third.

Turkington and Volkswagen team-mate Rodolfo Avila has sluggish starts from the front row which allowed the Ford Focus of Rainey He through into the lead, as many cars cut the first sequence of corners.

On lap two, Zhang passed both team-mate Avila and then Rainey He’s Changan Ford Focus to take the lead, while Avila was involved in contact with Jim Ka To’s Kia, with Ka To’s car stopping on circuit with front-right damage and with Avila’s car also stopping, which brought out the safety car.

With the recovery not progressing quickly, the race was red-flagged as Avila and Ka To’s cars were recovered, with the race restarting on lap six.

At this point, championship leader Leo Yi had now worked his way up to third from 12th on the grid in his Kia K3 2.0T, but soon found himself on the defensive, as he was passed by three cars on lap seven, the Ford of Martin Cao, the Volkswagen of Turkington and the Ford of Andy Yan.

Yi was now defending against Australian driver Josh Burdon, who was recovering from last place following a grid penalty. The two made contact on lap eight, with Yi cutting the chicane and then the two went side-by-side through the next left-hander with Yi’s car a nose ahead, but then as they both tried to fight their way through the corner, they made contact with Yi’s car hitting the barriers and forced into retirement.

The final battle was for third, as Zhang held a healthy lead over the Fords of Rainey He and Martin Cao, which were unable to employ team orders with Turkington’s Volkswagen right on their tail.

Turkington made a move on Cao’s Ford at the penultimate corner on the final lap to slot into third, but Cao attacked back at the exit, charging across the line less than a tenth of a second ahead of Turkington’s Lamando to claim the final podium position.

Andy Yan finished in fifth ahead of Josh Burdon, with all four Fords finishing in the top six, with David Zhu’s Senova seventh, Yang Fan’s Volkswagen eighth, Juan Carlos Zhu and Adam Morgan’s Senovas completing the top ten.

The final race of the weekend takes place at 13:50 CST (07:50 CEST) on Sunday.